These pages provide information on hydroacoustic technology for users
in the USGS and other agencies. Since the early 1980s the USGS has
worked cooperatively with manufacturers to develop and enhance the use
of acoustic Doppler instruments for streamflow and other hydraulic
measurements. The Office of Surface Water maintains these web pages to
provide updated information on hydroacoustics instruments and their use
within the USGS and elsewhere.

What's New?

QRev Software Released!

OSW
Technical Memorandum 2016.03 announces the release of U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) QRev
software for processing streamflow measurements made using an acoustic
Doppler current profiler (ADCP) from a moving-boat. QRev
was developed by the USGS to provide for more consistent review of ADCP
discharge measurements and to gain efficiency. QRev supports both SonTek
and Teledyne RD Instruments ADCPs. After a transitional period (3-6
months), OSW plans to make use of QRev mandatory for processing
moving-boat ADCP streamflow measurements. For the moment, the software is
available only to USGS personnel, but a public release is coming soon.

SonTek M9 and TRDI RiverRay Validation Paper Published!

A journal article titled, Validation
of Streamflow Measurements Made with M9 and RiverRay Acoustic Doppler
Current Profilers, has been published. The article, co-authored by
Justin A. Boldt and Kevin Oberg, describes the results of efforts to
validate M9 and RiverRay discharge measurements. According to this
article, statistical analyses of streamflow measurements indicate that
measurements made with the SonTek M9 ADCP using firmware 2.00–3.00 or the
TRDI RiverRay ADCP using firmware 44.12–44.15 are unbiased. However, for
the M9 ADCP, some important issues must be considered in making future
measurements. A high-resolution
version of the paper is also available.